Muscle Type IIX Making Steroids & HGH Obsolete

this article was in this months ESPN magazine. i'd like to get thoughts and opinions from those who know about some of the new genetic alteration stuff comming out.

MUSCLING UP
Right Now, Steroids and HGH get all the performance enhancing buzz, but some day soon, muscle type IIX will join that illustrious clique. IIX is one of the four pre-dominant muscle types in the human body (of the others, two are fast-twith fibers and one is slow-twitch). But because IIX is a minor, complimentary type that is bundled with other muscles, its functions have been a mystery. Recently, though, scientists at Harvard Medical School used a gene to transform mouse muscles made up of 15% to 20% IIX into ones that were entirely IIX. Result: Mice with the amped-up fibers ran about 25% farther than untreated rodents and worked about 40% harder, too. "This shows the conversion from fast-twitch to slow-twitch fibers seems to go through IIX," says Harvard prof Bruce Spieglman, who is most interested in what this finding could mean for treating ALS and muscular dystrophy. The researchers envision the development of drugs that will turn other types of muscle fibers into IIX. And that will no doubt be good news for performance enhancers everywhere. Are the Harvard folk worried about off-label uses? "Fear of that is not going to stop us from developing a drug to treat muscular diseases, "Spiegelman says. Note to drug testers: Don't say we didn't warn you.

There are several labs around the world which have the capability to genetically modify specific muscle tissues in mammals such that the muscle will produce it's own IGF-1 for the life of the animal. The muscles will not age, they won't get tired and they will take on a massively increased size. (For the insane among us, use of steroids or myostatin blockers at the same time would make you look like a certified freak)

A gene that codes for IGF-1 can be encapsulated in a virus (which has had all of it's own genetic material removed of course) and then injected into the muscle site.

The advantages of having the muscle produce it's own igf-1 i'm sure you can all imagine.
Much more effective than having it flowing through the blood stream and hoping for the best.

Of course, something like this will cost you a fortune, but it is totally permanent. (no, you won't grow exponentially your whole life)

Also, by avoiding the long chain, modified IGF it will remain undetectable.
Even if a test was developed, it would involve taking muscle biopsy which just cannot happen in the sporting arena.

People think that this technology is a long way away... It's not.
Maybe not by athens, but certainly at the next olympic games we will be seeing genetically modified athletes, and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. Bring it on I say.

I've actually invested in a couple companies working on gene therapies because I believe in the long-term potential of the approach. HOWEVER, I wouldn't be signing-up for this anytime soon. Scientists really know very little about what genes perform what function and what they have discovered is that gene expression (genes being turned on or off) is actually much more critical than the absence or presence of a given gene since there appears to be a lot of redundancy. Frankly, tinkering with your DNA for cosmetic purposes strikes me as a bad idea until there is a lot of real-life practice under the belt of the medical community. The last major gene therapy experiment on humans killed the subject. This is exciting but it's very premature. JMHO.